West
Virginia
Historical Society
Quarterly

VOLUME IX, NO. 4 and VOLUME X, NO. 1
March 1996

Letter from the West Virginia Penitentiary warden to House of Delegates

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following letter was printed in the Journal
of the House of Delegates, 1905. (Charleston: Moses W.
Donnally, 1905), 291-92. It is reprinted here as a interesting
companion to the foregoing article on executions in West Virginia.

WEST VIRGINIA PENITENTIARY, WARDENS OFFICE

Moundsville , W. Va. Jan. 23, 1905.

To The Members of the House of Delegates:

Late Saturday afternoon while in Charleston I learned for the
first time that a bill had been introduced in the House of
Delegates abolishing executions by hanging and substituting
therefore, electrocution or execution by the electric chair.
Subsequent inquiry revealed that this bill was reviewed by the
committee on humane institutions and public buildings (instead of
the Penitentiary Committee, to which it surely belonged) and that
the committee had recommended passage of the bill. I was compelled
to leave town early the next day and accordingly address you this
letter.

This bill effects materially the official force of this
institution, and we view its possible passage with grave concern.
Let me say that no greater mistake could be made than the passage
of this bill, from the standpoint of humanity, efficiency, safety
and economy.

No doubt, the gentleman who prepared and offered this bill was
actuated by a feeling of humanity and desired to do what he
considered would be a great improvement, with less pain, and less
distress, but the very opposite of this is the case.

The present system of conducting executions here is by all means
the most humane, the safest and least painful and is less expense
[sic]. From the time the subject is started from his cell
until he reaches the scaffold, steps on the trap, is bound,
strapped, the noose adjusted, the black cap placed, the brief
prayer said, and the subject dropped and dead, is less than sixty
seconds.

There have been twelve executions here since the law requiring
executions at the penitentiary passed, three under my
predecessors--nine under my administration. In every case there has
not been the slightest hitch or error, and the subject has been
subjected to no delay, so terribly hard to stand. Our people know
exactly how to do this work and it is done quickly.

But the electric chair is the very opposite. It takes ten
minutes to adjust the electrodes (which seems like ten hours), the
sponges, and arrange for everything, for everything has to be done
with the most absolute precision, and in the only two states that
have this system, there have been recently the most unsatisfactory
results, and the current has had to be applied over and over, to
the great horror and disgust of the officials.

That is not all. Electrocution is the most horrible death known.
Every nerve is shattered, every blood vessel bursted, the bones
crushed and broken, and in ten minutes after, every particle of the
victim's body is black and blue, a most gruesome sight--exactly
what occurs to parts of the victim of a stroke of lightning.

To maintain an electric chair would involve a large expense,
where as the present system involves no expense whatever.

In Ohio and New York they employ an expert electrician at a
salary of $1,200.00 per year, who does nothing else but look after
the necessary electrical machinery for this purpose alone.

The voltage of the electric current of our dynamos is not
sufficient to use for this purpose, at all. We would be forced to
purchase a powerful transformer, at a great expense.

The electric chairs are made by only one concern on earth, and
cost a fabulous price. The installation of the equipment would cost
at least $2,500.00 and the expert would cost $1,200.00 a year, all
of which is saved under the present system and is far
superior.1

I regret very much to have to annoy you with the discussion of
the details of a painful subject, but it seems necessary for you to
know the facts in this matter.

Previous to having an execution here under my administration, I
supposed, like the author of the bill, that electrocutions were
more humane and better. But after hearing from their own lips the
experiences of the Warden of the Ohio Penitentiary and the
Superintendent of Prisons in New York, both of whom denounce their
system, and after my subsequent experiences here, I am unalterably
opposed to the electric chair. We use electricity to spring the
trap, and that it [sic] all the need we have for
electricity.

I desire to urge you in the most earnest manner of which I am
capable, to vote against this bill, in the interest of humanity,
propriety and economy. Our officers are quick to ask for
improvements here and had this been regarded as an improvement, we
should ourselves have asked for it long since.

I shall thank you to make as much of these views public as in
your opinion is necessary and advisable.

Yours truly,

C. E. Haddox,

Warden

1. The penitentiary's entire power plant was replaced in 1905 at
a cost of $9,500, "the expenditure of which is fully justified by
the improved conditions, the greatly enhanced efficiency, the
economy of operation and the certainty of results." Biennial
Report of the Board of Directors of the West Virginia Penitentiary,
1905-1906 (Charleston: Tribune Printing, 1906), 15.